


i love you 3000

by forcevalentine



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), All I did was add Torunn for some spice, But also Not Not Canon Compliant, Gen, Genius Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), I had feelings about Morgan Stark, Kid Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Mentioned Shuri - Freeform, Morgan Stark Needs a Hug (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark-centric (Marvel Cinematic Universe), My Beta Reader Cried, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Teen Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forcevalentine/pseuds/forcevalentine
Summary: “Hey Miss Pots. . . Pep. . . Pepper. . . Peperoni,” the recording said, and Morgan watched as the recording of her father adjusted nervously.“Listen, I don’t know when you’ll see this. . . if you’ll ever see this, really. But there’s something that I’ve been wanting to tell you. . . I just feel like I have to tell you, you know? It’s like, if I don’t the whole world’s going to end whether Iron Man’s here to stop it or not.”
Relationships: Happy Hogan & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Harley Keener & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark, Pepper Potts & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Torunn Thorsdottir & Morgan Stark
Kudos: 12





	i love you 3000

While her father had always joked that her favorite story was the one where she went to bed, her actual favorite was the one about  _ The Avengers. _ The ones he tried not to tell her. But she could be very persuasive. 

Sometimes, they were scary. But Morgan, like her father, was morbidly curious about everything people told her to stay away from. So she had never minded.

In the days after his death it was not Tony’s voice, or his plethora of nicknames for her, that Morgan came to miss. Those were what her mother wanted to hear just one last time. 

Morgan just wanted one, last, story.

Which was why she had wandered into the garage. It was almost like she thought he’d be there. Of course, he wasn’t. She was hoping to find a recording, one her father had made years ago similar to the one from his funeral. One maybe hidden somewhere, far away. Just for her. 

But what she found instead, was not a story. 

It was a recording of her father, yes. 

Though it took her a very long moment to realize it was really him. He was much younger here, his hair more black than white. And he looked nervous, which was never a look Morgan had known her father to wear. The great Tony Stark had always been so confident when he talked to her. 

_ “Hey Miss Pots. . . Pep. . . Pepper. . . Peperoni,” _ the recording said, and Morgan watched as the recording of her father adjusted nervously.

_ “Listen, I don’t know when you’ll see this. . . if you’ll ever see this, really. But there’s something that I’ve been wanting to tell you. . . I just feel like I  _ _ have _ _ to tell you, you know? It’s like, if I don’t the whole world’s going to end whether Iron Man’s here to stop it or not,” _ the recorded Tony Stark spoke with a nervous laugh.

Morgan watched fascinated, being five years old she really didn’t understand what she was seeing. It hadn’t hit her yet that her father had not  _ always _ had white hair.

_ “Listen, this thing in my chest, you know, the Arc Reactor. It might kill me. Really. Ask Jarvis. Jarvis tell Pep what you-” _

_ “Sir, the point,”  _ that was a voice that Morgan had never heard before, and the suddenness of it made her jump. Her only thought was that:  _ So FRIDAY had a Daddy too. _

_ “Right, of course. Listen, Pep. It might kill me, from what Jarvis keeps telling me. He’s very persistent about that, even though I tell him that I’m  _ **_fine_ ** _. So I need you to know. . . that you are. . . you are the best person I could have ever met. Even if you are allergic to strawberries like some weirdo. But I can’t go on without at least having said it once. So. . . here it goes: You, Pepper Potts, are the most amazing woman I have ever met. Even with your weird berry racism thing -- was that offensive? I feel like that was offensive. -- even when you’re nagging me about shit like that, you are the only person I can ever imagine standing by my side- hell, you’re the only person crazy enough to do it. And I guess what I mean to say, is. . . You’re my best friend, Pep. You’re my person- You’re- It’s you. It’s only you. It’s always been you, and it’ll always be you. I love you.” _

Morgan watched as her father wiped at his eyes. She was again surprised by this, she had never known her father to cry. She had known her father to be a lot of things, but the man in the recording and how he acted was far from what she had ever known. And it somehow made her miss him more.

_ “That was stupid. Jarvis, cut. Cut it!” _

And then he was gone all over again, and all that was left was a very rusted helmet that she was more than familiar with. She could only stare at where the recording had been projected, and a five year old Morgan Stark only sat and stared at the empty space for a very long time. 

And then she began to cry.

  
  


You’d think that after nearly five years of him being gone, that Morgan would be used to birthday parties without him.

But she wasn’t, and she didn’t suppose she ever would be. 

Every year Happy tried to make her feel better by giving her a card that was supposed to be from her father, and for the first few birthdays she had believed it. But now she was almost ten years old and she had learned how Happy crossed his Ts. It was enough to know it was not actually her father’s work.

But she hadn’t told Happy that. She didn’t have the heart to tell him.

“Are you excited for tomorrow?” Her mother asked that night as she tucked Morgan into bed.

“I guess,” was the only answer Morgan could muster, shrugging.

“You guess? Aren’t you excited to see Peter and Harley again? Uncle Clint’s coming too, you know,” Pepper spoke in a calm way, but Morgan was smart enough to pick up the worry that lingered. 

“Yeah. . . but Daddy won’t be there,” before she had even finished Pepper’s face fell. She understood too well what her daughter meant. 

“I miss him too.”

“I know, Mama.”

“I love you, Morgan.”

“I love you too.”

It was with that, that Pepper brushed Morgan’s hair out of her face, kissed her forehead, turned out the light and left. Leaving Morgan alone in her bed to fall asleep for the night.

But as always when she missed her father the most, Morgan climbed out of her bed in search of the old rusted helmet with the nervous recording that she had kept all these years. She had kept it hidden in her toy box, a place she was sure her mother would never find it. 

_ “Hey Miss Pots. . . Pep. . . Pepper. . . Peperoni,” _ the recording started.

“She hates when people call her that, you know? And it’s actually Missus Stark now by the way, but I guess you weren’t expecting that,” Morgan whispered, her voice cutting over her father’s.

“ _ Like, if I don’t the whole world’s going to end whether Iron Man’s here to stop it or not,” _ the recording continued, as always, despite Morgan having spoken over it before. Of course there would be no pauses to look at her, there was no  _ I love you 3000 _ yet.

“The world did end for a while there, from what everyone says. I guess I should remember it more than I do, I was alive after all. But thanks to you. . . I don’t have to live in it anymore. You saved the world, Iron Man saved the world.” it was always around this point that Morgan began to tear up, began to choke on silent sobs and cry. 

_ “Sir, the point,”  _ the voice she had come to know as Jarvis cut in. And of course Morgan could not suppress her laugh. 

Of everyone she had heard stories about over the years, Jarvis was still an enigma to her. It was almost like everytime she got close to almost knowing, he slipped through her fingers. He was the one she wanted to meet the most out of anybody she had been told about.

_ “Right, of course. Listen, Pep. It might kill me, from what Jarvis keeps telling me. He’s very persistent about that, even though I tell him that I’m  _ **_fine_ ** _. So I need you to know. . . that you are. . . you are the best person I could have ever met. Even if you are allergic to strawberries like some weirdo. But I can’t go on without at least having said it once. So. . . here it goes: You, Pepper Potts, are the most amazing woman I have ever met. Even with your weird berry racism -- was that offensive? -- even when you’re nagging me about shit like that, you are the only person I can ever imagine standing by my side- hell, you’re the only person crazy enough to do it. And I guess what I mean to say, is. . . You’re my best friend, Pepper. You’re my person- You’re- It’s you. It’s only you. It’s always been you, and it’ll always be you. I love you.” _

Morgan always stayed quiet during that part. Her father always looked the most human at that point in the recording. He wasn’t the billionaire, philanthropist, playboy the media depicted and he wasn’t the famous  _ Iron Man _ either. He was just Tony Stark, he was just her dad.

_ “That was stupid. Jarvis, cut. Cut it!” _

And of course, the recording disappeared as it always did.

“It wasn’t stupid Daddy,” Morgan whispered as she wiped her eyes, to rid them of fresh tears, and put the old helmet back in its hiding place.

“I love you 3000,” she told the helmet, before closing the lid to her toy box and going to climb back into bed.

But she had just tucked herself back in, when she decided she didn’t want to be alone. So she grabbed a stuffed animal and padded to her mother’s room, climbing into bed quietly.

Pepper asked no questions, only lifted the blanket.

  
  


Rebuilding the world, getting society to a point where it’s semi-functional again, took a lot longer than Morgan Stark had ever thought it would.

But she was proud of how far they as a society had come in twelve years, she was proud to see that major cities were functioning in a somewhat decent manner, and very happy to see families reunited. 

She was all of that because she knew her father was the reason for it.

And today Morgan was feeling particularly glad for everything that had happened. She was starting to think she might just call Peter and Harley to come over to help finish their little ‘project,’ the one she had been keeping a secret from Pepper and Happy. If she were to tell them, they’d lose their minds.

“What did you pick to write about, Morgan?” her friend asked. The suddenness of Tori’s appearance snapped Morgan back to reality, and she lazily smiled at her. She looked more like her father than she ever cared to admit, but the one thing she was actually  _ glad _ she had of his was his smile.

She saw it everywhere in old recordings and newspapers, and then in even older ones of her grandfather, and couldn’t help but think it was a Stark family trait. She could almost hear her dad say,  _ Good looks run in the family. _

“I’m going to write about the snap.?

“The one when everyone like. . . disappeared?” Tori sounded shocked to hear it, but that’s exactly the one. It was the only one.

“What other snap is there, Sparkler,” Morgan asked, throwing a grape at her friend. And as always, Tori caught it. Morgan really shouldn’t be surprised anymore, it’d been this way since they were twelve.

“The one that brought everyone back, the one  _ I’m _ writing about,” the blonde says, throwing a grape of her own to Morgan.

“I’ve been forbidden from writing about that one, I think Beauchamp thinks it’ll give me a big head or something,” and as it had always been Morgan missed her grape. She was starting to wish she had taken the glasses from Peter when he tried to give them to her, then she’d never miss. 

“Just wait until they find out who  _ my _ dad is,” there’s a tilt of humor to Tori’s voice that makes Morgan smirk, rolling her eyes because this is  _ her _ idiot of a friend. It’s just like the stories her mother told her.

“Yeah, I’d keep that on the DL if I were you  _ Torunn,  _ goddess of. . . what was it again?”

“Oh, shut up Stark.”

“Morgana, we could  _ really _ use your help out here!” It’s Peter’s voice over the comms device, and Morgan knows she isn’t going to finish this paper by the time it’s due. Is this what he had to deal with when her dad recruited him?

“I’m  _ coming _ , I’m coming,” she sighs as she stands up from her desk, accepting defeat.

“Well get  _ moving _ if you’re coming,” she can barely hear Lila over the sound of  _ something _ blowing up and she knows if she doesn’t get there soon they're liable to take out all of New York. What’s left of it anyway.

“Can’t you call the old folk’s home or something? I have a paper that’s due in like, an hour to work on,” she said, already closing her laptop. 

“We tried that! Shuri has some diplomatic thing, Sam’s busy, and Bucky didn’t pick up! Everyone else is either off-world or  _ retired _ as they call it,” it’s Cassie to tell her, and from the way it echoes Morgan is sure that she’s  _ inside _ something or someone.

“Why are we grouping Shuri in with them now? She isn’t that old,” Morgan replied, wincing from the impact of her suit attaching itself to her.

“Harley’s mad at her,” Torunn said, but just barely over the sound of her sword clashing with something.

“I am  _ not _ mad at her! I’m just saying she’s getting up there in age you know?”

“Well so are you, Keen-  _ Hey! _ Was that you that just flew past my window? Be  _ careful,  _ do you know how long it took to get that suit ready for you?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Like I can’t fix it. Listen, will you just hurry up?”

“Watch who you’re talking to Iron-”

She’s cut off by her faceplate connecting to the suit, making her wobble a bit. She really needed to fix that. 

“Jarvis, get me out of here.”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea? Aren’t you worried about another hole in the ceiling?”

_ “Just do it!” _

**Author's Note:**

> i had feelings after watching endgame and so, i give you this. this hurt to write and my beta reader cried, and i honestly wish i could say i was sorry.


End file.
